With a Championship 4 spot on the line, William Byron put the bumper to Ryan Blaney to win at Martinsville Speedway in the third-round finale of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.
Byron made his winning move with 43 laps remaining, seizing the bottom lane in Turn 1 and moving Blaney up the track by tagging him in the left rear. The Hendrick Motorsports driver led the rest of the way and fended off Blaney on a restart with 11 laps remaining.
Starting from the pole position, Byron led a race-high 304 of 500 laps for this third victory this season in the No. 24 Chevrolet.
Hendrick Motorsports captured the final half of the Championship 4.
“Damn, I got a lot to say,” Byron told NBC Sports’ Marty Snider. “Things have a way of working out. God really tests your resilience a lot of times. We’ve been tested. Just unbelievable. I’m out of breath. Thank you, fans, for coming out. Bad-ass crowd. I watched my first NASCAR race up there just before start/finish line. Man, I am just so thankful, excited to see my family, just celebrate this one. We obviously go to Phoenix. Just go try to kick ass there.”
It was the first win in 11 races since August at Iowa Speedway for Byron, who won the regular-season championship despite a six-month drought after opening the year with his second consecutive Daytona 500 victory.
He had one top-five finish (a third at New Hampshire Motor Speedway) in the previous eight playoff races and opened the third round with a 36th at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and a 25th at Talladega Superspeedway that left him in a win-or-else position to make his third consecutive Championship 4 appearance.
“All these guys work so hard and you put everything into Sundays and sometimes you don’t get anything in return,” Byron said. “And that’s been the last couple weeks and honestly throughout the year, we had some close calls, but sometimes life is that way, but you just got to keep being resilient, and we were and just feels damn good.”
Blaney also was in a must-win situation to advance to the championship round. Trying to win his third consecutive playoff race at Martinsville, came up one spot short despite qualifying 31st and leading 177 laps on the 0.526-mile oval.
With a win by William Byron and a fifth by Kyle Larson, Hendrick Motorsports clinched half the Championship 4 field.
There were no hard feelings afterward as Blaney congratulated Byron in victory lane.
“That’s just two guys going for it, I don’t blame him for taking that,” Blaney told NBC Sports’ Kim Coon about the contact with Byron on the pass for the lead. “I would have done the same thing. I knew it was going to be tight. I tried to crowd him as much as I could. Just proud of the effort from the team. They gave 100% of what they had, and that’s all you can ask. Wasn’t quite enough.”
Kyle Larson, Byron’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate, captured the final championship-eligible berth in the season finale with a fourth-place finish that put him seven points ahead of Christopher Bell.
“What a performance by William,” Larson told NBC Sports’ Parker Kligerman. “Happy for Hendrick Motorsports. This win is as good as it could have been for us to score more points than Christopher then have William win, too. Hopefully one of us can win it.”
Oct 26, 2025; Martinsville, Virginia, USA; NASCAR Cup Series driver William Byron (24) during the Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway. Mandatory Credit: Greg Atkins-Imagn Images
Bell again was the first driver left out of the Championship 4, but he could live with his seventh-place finish more than last year’s race when he was bounced by Byron in a finish tainted by manipulation.
“Just seemed like we were lacking a little bit of long-run pace,” Bell told NBC Sports’ Dave Burns about his No. 20 Toyota. “I felt whenever we got the balance close at times, I could take off on tires and do OK and make some passes, maintain my position. Then the consistent theme of the day was just falling backwards as the tires got old.
We just weren’t strong enough at Martinsville this weekend. We practiced in the teens, we qualified in the teens, and kind of raced back there most of the day. I feel content with the results. I think the four going there are legitimate contenders. Whoever the champion is, it’s going to be well-deserved. The 20 team wasn’t good enough.
“There’s four great drivers. All have had championship seasons. Whoever the champion is, it’s going to be well-deserving. I think the format worked out this year.”
Byron and Larson advanced to face Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe in the title round Nov. 2 at Phoenix Raceway, where the championship will be awarded to the driver with the best finish of the four drivers who are evenly split between Joe Gibbs Racing and Hendrick Motorsports.
Along with Bell and Blaney, third-place finisher Chase Elliott and defending series champion Joey Logano (eighth) also were eliminated from the playoffs.
With Blaney and Logano locked out of the Phoenix title race, Team Penske’s streak of three consecutive Cup championships was snapped.
The two Joe Gibbs Racing drivers who already were locked into Championship 4 both suffered engine failures at Martinsville.
Hamlin, who opened the third round with a Las Vegas Motor Speedway victory to advance to the title race, was running second on the 334th lap when he pulled his sputtering No. 11 Toyota into the garage. Martinsville marked the third race during the playoffs with a mechanical problem for Hamlin, who also needed a push from team members Saturday when his car failed to start in qualifying.
“I felt like the car was coming to us and was just starting to close in on Blaney,” Hamlin said. “I didn’t feel anything. The engine was running and then not. We’ll work on it. I’m obviously concerned, but obviously nothing I can do about it. So we’re going to have to live with it and hopefully we get lucky next week. I’m confident on speed we’ll be good next week. We’ll bring our best and hopefully it lasts.”
Briscoe finished last when his No. 19 Toyota lost power after 295 laps, but the JGR driver already had locked into the Championship 4 with his Oct. 19 victory at Talladega Superspeedway.
“Went to upshift and something happened,” said Briscoe, who was running 12th before the failure. “Not really sure but next week is what it’s all about anyway.”
Stage 1 winner: Byron
Stage 2 winner: Byron
Next: Sunday, Nov. 2, 3 p.m. ET at Phoenix Raceway on NBC and Peacock